Death crash goalie sacked by Plymouth

[Lady Whistledown]

This is not, and can never be, a black and white issue.

Is the right answer.

You could argue that in a case like McCormick's, it comes down to a split second decision, a monumentally wrong one, it turns out, but nonetheless that one moment of his life where he decides to get behind the wheel. It's usually a case that these people just didn't think of the consequences, or thought it could never happen to them.

On another day, he might have got home safely. He might have decided to stop. He might have been pulled over by the police before he got much further. On such moments are lives changed forever.

To equate that, sentence-wise, to somebody who in a pre-meditated action, drags a woman down a dark alley and rapes her, to somebody who beats his wife to death, who stabs a guy in a pub fight, or who molests children, is ludicrous.

McCormick, and others like him, will no doubt spend every waking moment full if guilt and self loathing, wishing they could turn the clock back. Your average common or garden murderer, rapist or child abuser does no such thing.

People convicted of offences similar to McCormick's case have to be seen to pay the consequences of their mistakes, but I don't think throwing away the key is the answer, nor casting him into the wilderness of eternal damnation. Without being too dramatic, it wouldn't surprise me if he's seriously entertained the notion of ending it all after what's happened, and I for one don't want to be part of the crowd hounding him in that particular direction.

 

[fataddick]

That has to be the most stupid idea I have ever. Are you suggesting that people who drink drive should get longer than rapists?

Rapists should get life too. To me driving a car whilst drunk is as wilfully irresponsible as running down a street firing a pistol in random directions. You might NOT kill someone by doing it, but the risk is there and is too great for your behaviour not to merit punishment.